Student arrested for organising ‘homosexual concert’ accused of ‘debauchery’ in Egypt

A student has been arrested in Egypt after he was accused of committing “debauchery” by organising a “homosexual concert”.

The student from Giza, Egypt manages a company which organises concerts in the city.

(Photo by STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

He was arrested after he was accused of hiring a venue in order to host a concert.

The concert was allegedly only for LGBTQ people and was due to take place on Saturday.

The owner of the venue was also arrested.

Related: Egyptian police use Grindr to lure gay men to hotel rooms

Both have since been released but have been charged with “debauchery”.

The student has also faced criminal charges for organising the concert without a permit from authorities.

CAIRO, EGYPT: Egyptians with their faces covered, charged with engaging in homosexual activities and scorning Islam, enter a Cairo court under the protection of security men 14 November 2001. One of the 52 men was sentenced to five years in prison and several to three years at the end of their trial. The men were arrested in May following a party on a Nile riverboat. AFP PHOTO/Marwan NAAMANI (Photo credit should read MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Men charged with homosexual activities in Egypt in 2001 (Getty)

Their arrest is one of many in a crackdown launched by Egyptian authorities on LGBTQ people.


A report released by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that authorities are deliberately fuelling an anti-LGBT ‘moral panic’ in order to build support for a crackdown.

The report charts the horrific extent of the crisis, which has caused a dramatic surge in arrests of LGBT people.

Related: Seven people arrested for ‘sexual deviancy’ in Egypt after waving Pride flag

It states: “The EIPR has observed an exponential increase in the number of individuals arrested because of their private sexual practices and/or sexual orientation.

“In what is now known as the as the Public Morality Investigation Unit’s campaign against LGBTQ individuals and men who have sex with men or those perceived as such.”

Egyptian family members of victims of the Port Said massacre react outside the Court of Cassation following the court's ruling in the case, in Cairo, on February 20, 2017. An Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 10 people convicted over rioting that claimed 74 lives at a stadium in Port Said in 2012, judicial and security officials said. The riot, the country's deadliest sports-related violence, broke out when fans of home team Al-Masry and Cairo's Al-Ahly clashed after a premier league match between the two clubs. / AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images)

(Getty)

EIPR estimates based on media monitoring that 232 people were arrested between the end of 2013 and March 2017.

The report alleges that morality police were also responsible for fuelling negative stories about LGBT people in order to stoke public fear, manufacturing “the creation of major sex scandals that receive exceptional media attention”.

Sources on the ground have repeatedly raised the alarm about Egypt’s so-called ‘Public Morality Investigation Unit’, which actively targets the gay community with raids and entrapment.

Related: No-one is talking about Egypt’s shocking homophobic purge

The situation worsened in September last year when the waving of a rainbow flag at a music concert was extensively derided in the press.

Sarah Hegazy, 28, and Ahmed Alaa, 21, were fined 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($113) and released.

A Pride flag at Mashrou Leila's concert

A Pride flag at Mashrou Leila’s concert in Egypt

Last month, nine people were accused of “debauchery” and arrested for being gay after neighbours accused them of being “weird”.

According to reports, investigations ensued after an estate agent rented the property for sex parties.

Related: Egypt launches bid to ban atheism over fears it turns people gay

Authorities said the men had put up a wall of secrecy on what they did at the apartment.

They had apparently attempted to use codes to avoid suspicion.